


Forgotten but Not Gone: The True Identity of Samurai X

by Woodswolf



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Analysis, Gen, Meta, Season/Series 07, Season/Series 08, Spoilers, theory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-07 22:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11068674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woodswolf/pseuds/Woodswolf
Summary: A comprehensive theory about one of the most mysterious characters in Season 7... Samurai X.A full description with much more information, especially about the background and structure of this theory, can be found inside.Warning:This theory almost completely spoils the last several episodes of S7,especiallyE74. If you haven’t watched them yet, come back to read this after you do.





	1. Debunking the Pixal Theory

**Author's Note:**

> While I was writing this on Tumblr, the post became extremely long extremely quickly - to the point where, 8200 words in and _still_ less than half done, Tumblr started to glitch out on me, and made it very difficult to continue working on it. As such, I've moved it to AO3 to make it much easier to read and to write.
> 
> This theory draws evidence from many sources: screenshots and clips from the show, official videos released by LEGO, other canon sources, and more. I've embedded many images and videos in this post; you can open them in a new tab to view their original size.
> 
>  **Part One** covers why the fandom’s most popular theory - namely, that Samurai X is Pixal - instantly falls apart if you look at it too closely. It contains four subsections, each of which discusses a specific aspect in which the theory simply doesn’t make sense - and all of which, together, completely eliminate her as a possibility.
> 
>  **Part Two** re-examines all of the information we’ve gathered about Samurai X. After that, it determines their true identity, compares them to Samurai X, and then presents additional evidence from other sources - including (but not limited to) tweets from the creators.
> 
> Finally, **Part Three** examines Samurai X’s history and future. In the beginning, it closely examines the series of events that most likely led to this point, starting from the likely inciting incident and leading up to when Samurai X first shows up in S7. Finally, it speculates on what role(s) they’ll have in the next season, and how they could have an impact on the other characters.
> 
> As I said before, this is a very long read - but I hope that by the end, you’ll believe that it was worth it.

#  **Part One:** Debunking the Pixal Theory

The basic argument that the fandom uses for the Pixal theory can be easily ripped apart if you look at it for five seconds. Yes, Pixal uploaded herself into the Samurai Cave’s systems, and apparently left Zane’s system in the process; and yes, Samurai X did disappear when the timeline was altered... but that’s pretty much all of the evidence that could potentially support it, and all of it is really weak.

Meanwhile, there’s a near-infinite amount of evidence that the _opposite_ is true - **that there’s no way that Pixal could possibly be Samurai X.** In the first part of this post, I’m going to be examining all of the differences between Pixal and Samurai X, including but not limited to their personalities, their motives, and their inner thoughts and feelings.

With that said, let’s begin!

* * *

###  **Section One:** The Body Problem

One of the most immediate, obvious problems with the Pixal theory is this: **She doesn’t have a body.** This creates a direct contradiction with a teaser released on Lego's YouTube channel - Samurai X Rising, which you can watch here:

In the clip, a person’s silhouette runs in front of one of one of the screens. They also grab the Samurai Armor off of a stand, and if you look closely, **it’s clearly visible that they have a hand and arm** \- not a mechanical claw or other similar device that Pixal would have to use to take the armor without access to a body.

Furthermore, the Samurai Cave is simply not equipped to manufacture a body for Pixal. When Zane resurrected himself at the end of S3, **he had to use all of Borg Industries’s the state-of-the-art equipment from _multiple_ assembly lines.** The Samurai Cave doesn’t have anything anywhere _near_ that scale, and on _top_ of that, it’s made clear in S4 that Nya builds and repairs all of her vehicles _herself_ \- if the cave had the proper equipment to build massive vehicles like the mobile base, you’d _think_ that Nya would use that instead.

“But Woods!” I hear you saying, “What about the machine that changed the color of the Samurai Armor and the vehicle?” Well, it’s simple. Remember back in S4 when the mobile base could _literally change its shape into whatever Nya wanted it to look like?_ Well, let’s think about its features: Nya had to voluntarily activate the form changes for the mobile base, and said form changes would stay on place until it was either deactivated or updated to another form. Overall, it’s pretty easy to guess that **this technology could be implemented in a smaller scale** on the Samurai Armor and that vehicle, which would enable the user to change the color of the armor to anything they desire, and possibly add other cosmetic effects.

Long story short, the Samurai Cave simply doesn’t have the technology required to create a new body for Pixal - and that pretty much _instantly obliterates_ this entire theory, regardless of the rest of the evidence stacked against her.

* * *

###  **Section Two:** Why the Secret Identity?

Now, let’s get into the second part of the issue, which is the _really_ thorny bit: **Why would Pixal want to hide her identity, and furthermore, _why would she tell absolutely no one?_**

Samurai X talks to a total of _four people_ over the entire course of the season: Nya, Cyrus, Zane, and Jay, in that order. And they were _really_ insistent on hiding their identity: when they were talking with Nya in the Samurai Cave, they were covered in armor which hid every part of their body, including their face - which was obscured by not only the helmet, but also the golden mask underneath. Furthermore, during that conversation, they changed their voice a grand total of _**ten times**_ \- in order, they used Ronin, Dareth, Misako, Garmadon, Kai, Sensei Wu, Cole, Nya, a synthesized vaguely masculine voice, and finally Skylor.

Now, **give me _one good reason_ why Pixal would want to hide her identity _this badly_ from Nya.** Because when it came down to it back in S1, Nya revealed her identity to her brother in a heartbeat once he confronted her on it. And Pixal _knows_ Nya, and _trusts_ her - Nya _literally brought her back to life_ back in S3 by giving her a piece of Zane’s power source, and on top of that, both of them are close friends with Zane. **_Why would Pixal not tell her?_** And if you say some sort of bullshit excuse like “ohhhh but the samurai needs anonymity”, go back and watch S1-S4 - **Nya’s been able to operate _just fine_ with the rest of the Ninja knowing her identity as the Samurai.**

**And then you get to _Zane,_ and _Cyrus!_ Her own _father!_ And Samurai X still says _nothing!_ They don’t even _hint_ at their identity!**

And if this theory is _already_ starting to look bad to you, just wait - because it gets _**even worse.**_

Let’s start with an interesting moment from E73. Near the end of the episode, Samurai X shows up, talks with Zane and Cyrus for a moment, and then helps the two of them to disable the Iron Doom. They fail, of course, but that’s not the important part - the important thing is that **this scene makes a lot less sense if Samurai X is Pixal.**

 **Think about it from Cyrus’s perspective for a moment.** The one thing that Cyrus remembers about his crazy password is that it’s 1300 digits long, which Zane and Samurai X both recognize as the number of digits in the first line of a Nindroid’s code. (Remember this - it’ll be important later.) Given this information, what do you think Cyrus’s chosen password would be?

 **The answer is _obviously_ Pixal’s code.** Pixal is his _daughter,_ and they both care about each other a lot. Even though Cyrus presumably hasn’t seen her in quite a while, perhaps a few years, it’s still _much_ more likely that he’d use Pixal’s code rather than any random Nindroid’s.

 **But it’s _Zane,_ not Samurai X, who steps up to the console and starts smashing keys.** And sure, you can make the argument that every Nindroid’s first line of code or whatever else is the same; and sure, Samurai X was running off the digits just as fast as Zane was - but none of that matters. Just think about all of this in relation to the previous point I made - **that Samurai X did _everything they could_ to make sure that no one knew who they were.**

Samurai X is standing right there next to Cyrus and Zane, Pixal’s father and her platonic/romantic partner - and they just sit there and say nothing. **They’re standing next to the two people that Pixal trusts the most in the _entire world,_ and Samurai X doesn’t even _move._**

* * *

###  **Section Three:** Trust, or Lack Thereof

Next, let’s move on to a related subject: **Samurai X’s attitudes and demeanor towards the Ninja.**

Let’s start with their interactions with Cyrus and Zane in E73, since we were just talking about that. Right off the bat, **Samurai X appears to be relatively detached** from everyone else, only focusing on doing what needs to be done - namely, rescuing Cyrus, and also disabling the Iron Doom. They treat Cyrus **less like a friend and more like an objective that must be obtained.** Cyrus is Pixal’s father - why in the world would she treat him as nothing more than a pawn?

Samurai X also treats Zane in a similar fashion - as a means to an end rather than a person. **They blatantly say that they hacked Zane** in order to find his location, which is morally gray at _best._  The only other time something similar has happened was when, in S6, Ronin hacked Zane and took control of his body so that he could easily capture him and Lloyd in order to turn them over to the police. **_Why would Pixal hack Zane and exploit his systems like this?_** Earlier on in the season, Pixal was trying to repair the “corruption” or whatever from when Krux and Acronix ambushed Zane and Cyrus. Hacking him in this way would be the exact opposite of that - if anything, Pixal would try to be a “firewall” for him, to _prevent_  him from getting hacked!

And then you consider the conversation that Samurai X has with Zane when they first show up - they focus entirely on Cyrus, and completely ignore Zane until _he_  took the initiative to speak to them. And once they begin actually talking, Samurai X’s responses are all short, snappy replies. They also barely glance in Zane’s direction while they talk to him, instead choosing to focus on retrieving Cyrus and getting things in order. **All of this really shows that Samurai X has a distaste for Zane, and doesn’t seem to trust him.** Why would Pixal act like this around him? It’s completely out-of-character for her.

Now let’s examine their interactions with Nya in E71, which are the most extensive, as they get to interact with each other for practically half the episode. This means that there’s _a lot_ to deconstruct and analyze here - so let’s get started by examining the first half of the scene, before they begin fighting.

Nya walks into the cave to find Samurai X standing in the middle of the platform, and she prepares for a fight, expecting that they might be a Vermillion - but they tell her (using Ronin’s voice) that they aren’t associated with them whatsoever. Nya quickly calls out their lie, and says that they can’t be Ronin because Ronin’s leg is supposedly broken.

(I can’t remember if/when this happened - if it happened on-screen, it must have occurred at the end of S5 (since S6 retconned itself and Ronin didn’t appear in DOTD). I don’t remember.)

Samurai X takes this in stride, though, and _instead_ claims to be Dareth. At this point, Nya attacks them. What’s interesting to note is that through the entire scuffle that ensues, **they only defend themselves, and never deal any blows to Nya.** A moment later, they confirm what was obvious from how they were fighting - that they don’t want to fight her. She continues attacking them for another moment before commenting that they’re too good at fighting to be Dareth; as a result, Samurai X takes on a _third_ persona as Misako.

This enrages Nya, and she attacks again. The two of them fight for another short while, and Nya, once again, calls Samurai X out as an impostor. At this point, something very interesting happens - **Samurai X claims to be Garmadon, _who everyone knows is dead._**

Nya says this, of course, and the scene quickly moves on from there, but this is yet another nail in the coffin of the Pixal theory - **Pixal knows that Garmadon is already dead, _but Samurai X doesn’t._**  This fact _alone_ rapidly narrows the field of possible suspects, but I’m only going to get into that at the very end of this post, where I’ll describe how **all of the evidence against Pixal _perfectly aligns_  with someone else.**

Continuing on: Samurai X changes to use Kai’s voice instead, and Nya doesn’t buy it. Nya immediately says that they’re not her brother, but  **they reply that they’re not her enemy.** The episode cuts to other scenes here, but when we return, the two of them are fighting again - and Nya ends up flying off to the side, only to end up balancing precariously over the edge. **Samurai X grabs her feet to prevent her from falling, once again demonstrating that they don’t want her dead.**  And when Nya compliments them on their fighting ability, they use Wu’s voice and thank her.

After another short spiel, Nya attacks them with water, and this exchange occurs:

> **Nya:** It’s over! Reveal your identity!
> 
> **Samurai X (Cole):** I can’t!
> 
> **Nya:** You must!
> 
> **Samurai X (Nya):** _Never!_ I hide my identity to protect the innocent! My friends and allies would be at risk if my enemies knew who I really was! You were me once! _You know this!_
> 
> **Nya:** Yes! Yes I do!

Now, here’s the thing: **Samurai X’s argument here is complete bullshit.**

Nya’s identity as Samurai X was a secret for a total of one episode - namely, E5. Circumstances forced her to reveal herself to Kai at the end of E6, but even then, Nya did it willingly and didn’t make a huge deal out of it after Kai promised to keep it a secret; but later, in E8, her identity was revealed to the rest of the Ninja. And as S1 went on, the number of people who knew her identity steadily increased, almost exponentially. In E11, the Serpentine presumably figure it out after capturing the Ninja while they were attempting to invade their underground "base” (for lack of a better word). After some time, it’s probably reasonable to assume that **Ninjago at large just figured it out as well,** for one reason or another.

 **When Nya was Samurai X, she basically operated on the _opposite_ of anonymity.** And sure, it wasn’t entirely her intention - she probably would’ve been perfectly happy hiding her identity until the end of time, had circumstances not prevented it - **but even once lots of people knew her identity, she was _no less effective_  in her role as Samurai X.**

Meanwhile, this new Samurai X twists the argument around, probably into what Nya _felt_ was true, rather than what was _actually_ true. **Nya probably feared that her friends could get hurt if people knew she was Samurai X, even though it had never happened.** This argument that Samurai X uses is extremely deceptive and quickly falls apart when you think too much about it - which brings us back to one of the original questions.

**Why would Pixal want to hide her identity so badly that she’d _intentionally manipulate Nya_ to agree with her?**

Because when it comes down to it, **Samurai X’s whole argument is simply an _excuse_ to not reveal their identity.** There’s no substance to their argument; it’s purely designed to tinker with Nya’s emotions, enough so that she’ll stop asking about it.

Long story short, Samurai X has the best overall relationship with Nya, but even _their_ relationship isn’t great. While Samurai X doesn’t want any of them dead, **they clearly don’t trust _any of them_ with _anything._**  At best, they’re very detached and cold, and at worst, they appear to be somewhat manipulative of and uncaring about others’ feelings. To say the least, that doesn’t sound like Pixal at all.

* * *

###  **Section Four:** Inside the Samurai’s Mind

The next important thing to look at is Samurai X’s general body language, including such things as their posture, how they position themselves with respect to other people, and any automatic responses which suggest various emotions or states of mind. Additionally, I’ll be pointing out lots of things that are out of place that don’t fit in any other section. This section, as it discusses body language, is going to have a lot of images, and one or two GIFs of especially important moments.

The most relevant episode for our purposes is E74, as that’s pretty much the only episode where Samurai X is seen interacting with large groups, as their interactions with smaller groups/specific people are less relevant here. Conversations with specific characters tend to reveal more about their relationships, goals, etc. - while on the other hand, their interactions with large groups can tell us more about their thoughts, feelings, and how they see themselves, which is much more important here.

Here are a few screenshots that show their position relative to the rest of the group in the first scene, each with captions:

Jay, Cyrus, Lloyd, Zane, and Cole stand in a loose triangular shape. Samurai X is slightly farther away.

Maya, Ray (behind Maya), Jay, Cole, Cyrus, and Lloyd (behind Jay) stand in a small clump. Zane and Samurai X are a significant distance away.

An alternate view of the same scene from the previous screenshot, clearly showing how far Samurai X is from the rest of the group.

Most of the group stands in a circle (though Cyrus is slightly off to one side). Samurai X is behind everyone else, as far away from the center as possible.

 **Samurai X seems to make a point to stay as far away from the center of the group - and the main action - as possible.** They’re always at the back of the group, trying to be inconspicuous and unnoticed, and only speak when spoken to (i.e. the couple of times that Jay attempts to bribe them into revealing their identity, where they only give one-word answers in response).

The rest of their body language is neutral (legs straight, arms hanging at their sides, vaguely staring in the direction of the action), but that’s about all that can be said about it - throughout this whole scene, **they say nothing, and never react to any part of the conversation.** They could be staring off into space, and we would be none the wiser because of their mask.

At the same time, **the nonreactive, detached attitude seems to be at least somewhat intentional,** and it fits with how they’ve acted in previous scenes. However, it seems more like they’re putting up a front - _pretending_ to be uninterested while they're listening closely to try to learn more information.

Between the fact that they’re perpetually as far away from the group as they can possibly be, the fact that they never speak, and the way they seem to be putting up a front of indifference to hide their true feelings (like a metaphorical mask, to pair with their literal one), it seems very likely that **Samurai X either doesn’t trust or doesn’t know how to interact with the majority of the group.**

This, quite obviously, doesn’t make sense for Pixal. She’s known the Ninja for a long time, and she trusts all of them - but more importantly, it doesn’t make any sense for her to be trying to avoid interacting with the group. Obviously, she hasn’t had a physical body since S3, but here are a few screencaps I was able to take out of random episodes:

Pixal is clearly just as concerned about the stuff on the screen as everyone else is. She’s also standing directly in the middle of the group.

Pixal is clearly engaged in the conversation. She’s in line with the edge of the small circle, and standing between Cyrus and Zane.

Pixal is explaining the functions of the Techno Blades at length. She’s also standing next to Zane.

 **All of this is pretty much the exact opposite of Samurai X’s behavior.** Samurai X always stands toward the edge of the group, and they're usually several steps away from whoever is closest to them. Furthermore, they don’t speak unless spoken to, and they aren’t drawn to any particular character; they’re just as likely to stand next to Jay or Cole or Lloyd as anyone else, generally whoever is farthest away from the center of the group. They have a _slight_ tendency to stand near Zane, but that’s mostly because Zane also sticks closer to the edge of the group in most of these scenes.

Next, let’s move onto the second mini-scene from E74: the infamous one where Zane had skin again for some inexplicable reason. Here’s a collage of three screenshots, showing the general structure of the group:

The first screenshot shows Lloyd, Cole, Jay, Cyrus, Maya, and Ray all gathered together, and the second screenshot provides an overhead view. The third shows how far Zane's body is from the main group... but Samurai X remains nowhere to be seen.

Something else happens in this scene, though. The scene never draws attention to it, so it’s possible to miss it. If you can’t figure it out, though, here’s the answer:  **Samurai X also disappears.**

As far as I can tell, **this is one of the few pieces of evidence that the fandom latched onto without thinking,** and one of the cornerstones of the whole Pixal theory. Cyrus was complaining a few seconds before that all of his technology disappeared, because it was never invented; then, a few seconds later, Samurai X up and vanishes as well.

The thing is, it’s really not so straightforward. **The battle with the Iron Doom took place 40 years ago.** Given how Ninjago City shrunk down to a large village, if even that, an incomprehensible number of things must have changed. Thus, it’s definitely possible that the reason Samurai X disappeared was not because they were an android that hadn’t been invented yet - but that **the aftermath of the Iron Doom’s invasion could have drastically altered their life path, causing them to never show up there in the first place.** I won’t provide an explanation here; I’ll do that in Part Two.

Continuing on, we get to the last scene in E74. This is perhaps the most telling, as Samurai X is infinitely more expressive here than in the first scene of the episode. Have a few more screenshots:

After Zane wakes up and stands, Samurai X walks up to him. We're never shown where they were before.

Jay sees Samurai X again and prepares interrogate him. This is yet another example of how far Samurai X tends to stand away from the main group.

You all know how this continues: Kai and Nya fall out of the sky, Ray is quickly dying, they have the Reverse Time Blade, etc. But there’s something curious that LEGO put in here, something that I have _no doubt_ was intentional:

This step forward is possibly the most important piece of evidence in all of E74.

Samurai X, in every scene they’ve appeared in before this point, has barely moved, barely spoken, barely done _anything._ But as soon as Kai begins to heal Ray - as soon as he begins to display the Time Blade’s power - **Samurai X’s cold front instantly evaporates.**

 **They take a quick step forward, and even lean in a little** \- something that’s extremely out of character for them up to this point. Before now, they’ve stuck to the back of the crowd, pretending to be uninterested. They had an unbreakable wall between their thoughts and feelings and the real world. **But something about this scene - something about the Time Blade - draws them in,** and their impenetrable shield suddenly shatters like glass.

The scene moves on from there. After Ray is back to normal, everybody comes in for a group hug. Samurai X, of course, doesn’t join in, but something seems _off:_

Samurai X is frozen solid. They seem to be lost in thought.

 **They’re standing there, but it almost looks like they’re struggling to stand.** Their feet are no longer perfectly aligned, as they had been in all previous scenes; one of their feet is slightly twisted, and their legs are bent a bit awkwardly. Additionally, their arms are much further out to the sides, rather than hanging normally; unfortunately, it’s not obvious in this screenshot.

They’re quite clearly shocked. **Something has shaken them to their very core,** and they have no idea how to deal with whatever has done so.

Another view of Samurai X staring off into space, a few seconds after the previous screenshot. The rest of the group has since moved toward them - not the other way around.

For the rest of the episode, Samurai X never truly regains their composure, much less their facade of cold indifference. At first, they’re frozen solid, and while they appear to be focusing on the conversation, it’s made clear a few moments later that they’re not.

Samurai X appears to be very nervous and/or distracted, as they’re moving a lot more than everyone else.

While almost everyone moves a little bit, Samurai X suddenly jerks their head to the side as soon as Lloyd starts speaking - as if they were completely lost in thought. They also move a quite a bit more than everyone else - Nya turns her head, Maya folds her hands, Zane puts his arms to his side, and meanwhile Samurai X is practically doing the macarena.

 **So now, tell me how _any of this_ makes sense for Pixal.**  Why would she put as much distance as possible between herself and her friends and relatives? Why would she intentionally hide her true personality to become an emotionless warrior? Why would she care about the Time Blade? And finally, **why in the world would Pixal fall into a stupor after seeing its power in action?**

 **The answer, my friends, is that Samurai X isn’t Pixal.** Now, let’s move to the more pressing question - if Pixal isn’t Samurai X, then who are they?


	2. The Theory and the Proof

#  **Part Two:** The Theory and the Proof

To those of you who have read some of my other theories, including those that I’ve previously written on this topic, and/or those who happened to look through the tags before you started reading, you probably already know the conclusion I’ve reached here. For those who  _haven’t,_ though, here’s the answer:

####  **Dr. Julien is Samurai X.**

Before you close this theory and completely disregard everything I’ve said, just wait a moment. All of your questions - everything ranging from “But how can he even be _alive?_ ” to “Why would he want the Time Blade any more than Pixal?” - will be answered before the end.

* * *

###  **Section One:** No, It’s Not Impossible

Before I lose too many of you to  _“This person’s completely crazy, forget this”_ , just hear me out. There’s actually quite a lot of evidence that Julien isn’t dead; instead, **he simply disappeared shortly before S3.** Furthermore, there’s also a pretty good amount of information from multiple sources - everything ranging from intentional reminders within the show itself, to details in other canon sources, to remarks by the creators - **which seem to strongly suggest, if not directly foreshadow, his return.**

Let’s start with the most obvious thing against this idea: **Cyrus’s short conversation with Zane in E27,** which supposedly “proved” that Julien was dead.

> **Cyrus:** Speaking of which... my deepest condolences, Zane. I heard about your father - oh, he was a brilliant mind. He would’ve fit right in.
> 
> **Zane:** Thank you, but loss is inevitable.
> 
> **Cyrus:** Today, maybe... but not tomorrow! Technology - making the impossible possible! The only limit to our potential is that which we _don’t_ dream.

This quote is interesting for _several_ reasons, some of which will actually be relevant later on - and I’ll eventually be bringing it up again towards the end of Part Two. Right now, though, let’s **deconstruct what they say** to come up with possible explanations.

To start off, **neither of them mention the “D” word**   _ ~~(no, not that one)~~_ or use any similar term - passed, gone, late, departed, asleep, whatever else. Zane mentions _loss,_ but that’s not necessarily implying he’s dead.

Now, one of the arguments that I’ve seen people use to defend this is that the writers wouldn’t want to straight-up say that he’s dead, simply because it’s a kids show. But there’s a huge problem with this argument: **it’s that they’ve done so before.**

For a start, let’s consider Julien’s very first appearance, from Zane’s memories in  _Tick Tock._  But think about the last scene in that sequence - Julien’s completely bedridden, he can barely sit up, he has difficult moving, and his words to Zane make it _very_ clear to both Zane and the audience that he’s in his final moments. And _then,_ while they don’t actually show Julien die on-camera, they show his glasses falling to the floor; and after Zane wakes up, **_they show his dead body in the bed._**

And sure, you could _argue_ that that particular detail was “retconned” in _The Last Voyage,_ as Julien revealed that Samukai revived him well before Zane woke up - **but that’s still another several shots of a dead body,** and thus a moot point.

Speaking of _The Last Voyage_ , there are also a few quotes that directly mention Julien’s death as well:

> **Zane:** But my memory tells me that you have passed!

And in the same scene, merely a few lines later:

> **Julien:** I'll explain everything inside - including why it is that you thought I was dead.

And only a couple minutes after that:

> **Zane:** Father... I don’t understand. I saw you pass!
> 
> **Julien:** Yes you did! And believe me when I tell you, I thought I was kaput!

**Ninjago has _never_ shied away from mentioning and picturing death.** While I don’t remember the exact details of some of these off-hand, and I don’t exactly care to be exact, here's an extensive list of all of the other times that the show has directly dealt with death:

  1. **Kai and Nya mention that their parents are dead many, many times.**
    1. They talk about it at the very beginning of the Pilot, when they’re discussing Kai’s poor weaponsmithing skills.
    2. Chen talks about their parents several times in S4; I’m not sure if it was mentioned that they were dead or not.
    3. S7. Where do I even start with S7.
      1. Additional fun detail, which I’ll bring up later: Kai and Nya’s discussion with their parents during E72, about how they were never dead at all.
  2. **Samukai dissolved into nothing at the end of the Pilot.**
  3. **Pythor and Wu are eaten by the Great Devourer near the end of S1.**
    1. While both of them are later revealed to still be alive (Wu in S1; Pythor in S3), the Ninja _assume_ that they’re both dead.
    2. They mourn Wu for a little while before they finally pursue the Devourer to Ninjago City.
  4. **At some point in S2, someone (?) mentions that the FSM died at some point before Garmadon fell into the Underworld.**
    1. In S5, we also see his tomb, complete with skeleton.
  5. **In E21, the Serpentine get locked underground inside the Stone Army’s tomb.**
    1. While it was later revealed in S3 that they were still alive and thriving, the fandom at the time was very upset over the idea that they might have starved to death in there.
  6. **Pixal dies on camera in E28.  
**
  7. **Remember when Zane _exploded_ at the end of S3?**
    1. And then they showed that replay of all his dearest memories, and how he was satisfied with his life?
    2. And then they showed the Ninja finding his face-plate, the last piece of his body, and how inconsolable they all were when they realized that their friend was truly dead?
    3. And then they showed his funeral and everything, with everyone mourning his death?
    4. And then they showed all of the Ninja falling into depression while trying to cope with his death?
      1. And how all of them completely stopped interacting with each other and drifted apart?
      2. And how all of them took various jobs to try to deal with their sadness and frustration, and to try to distract themselves from their loss?
      3. And how none of them wanted to go back to being a team again because they couldn’t stand the fact that one of their members was gone?
    5. **_Yeah, me neither._**
  8. **After Garmadon sacrificed himself to save Ninjago, the Ninja have mentioned he’s dead more than once.**
    1. They carved an effigy of him into the walls of the Corridor of Elders in his honor.
    2. After Lloyd found him in the Cursed Realm, Garmadon explicitly told him to leave him behind, because Garmadon was going to die anyway when the Preeminent drowned.
    3. In S7, during her fight with Samurai X, Nya mentions that Garmadon sacrificed his life for the greater good.
  9. **Morro died on camera at the end of S5. Enough said.**
  10. **Several notable things from S6:**
    1. Nadakhan convinces various characters to “wish it all away”
      1. AKA “You know, death doesn’t sound like that bad of an option right now!”
      2. It’s later revealed that, when many people (all of the Ninja minus Jay and Nya; Wu; Misako; Clouse; and Turner, for whatever reason) are trapped inside the Sword of Souls, all of them are pretty much dead, and if Jay couldn’t get them out, they’d all be stuck in there forever and be pretty much dead.
    2. Nadakhan’s father dies practically right in front of him, and he also implied (if not outright stated) that everyone else in Djinjago had already died.
    3. Nya and Nadakhan _both_ die on camera in the finale.
  11. **Day of the Departed was an _entire special_ about dead characters!**
  12. **S7 has a few mentions of death and dying as well; but I’ve already covered most of them, so I won’t repeat myself.**



There are all of these times - and possibly even _more_ that I’m forgetting - that Ninjago has directly dealt with death. There are all of these times that they mention it, depict it, talk about it, show the effects of it, etc.

**So _why,_ in this _one specific instance,_ would they not _explicitly say_ that Julien was dead?**

Back when S3 was originally airing, I had a strong suspicion that **the writers were intentionally leaving their options open, such that they could bring him back later if they wanted to.**  Before S3, Julien had already died; been revived; imprisoned; forced to manufacture vehicles for the Skeleton Army; been completely isolated for however many years afterwards, and afraid of even stepping outside lest he be eaten alive by the Leviathan; eventually grown desperate and/or psychologically distressed enough to build Echo, such that he could _attempt_ to hold on to his sanity; and was finally rescued again by Zane after indeterminate amount of time. Given how crazy of a life Julien had already lived, **would it honestly seem like too much of a stretch if even _more_  crazy things happened to him?** I personally don’t think so.

On top of that, **they didn’t really need him _around_ in S3.** He shares the same “odd-but-charming inventor” role that Cyrus has; there would’ve been no reason to introduce him if they hadn’t removed Julien from the picture first.

Furthermore, **Julien’s presence would’ve made most of the season completely _pointless,_** and it would’ve taken away all of the emotional impact. Pixal was introduced to be a love interest, sure, but she also helped Zane work through his grief - which wouldn’t have been present if Julien were still alive/around. All of the stuff about Zane’s mysterious Power Source - how it showed how much his father cared about him; how it embodied the platonic love they had had for each other; how it was a metaphorical representation of Zane’s “soul”, almost - none of that would’ve meant _anything_ if anyone could just walk up to Julien and ask him, “Hey, how did you make that glowey blue thing in Zane’s chest anyway?” And finally, when Zane died in the finale, **Julien could’ve just said _“Fuck it!”_ and built a new one!**

When you take all of these things together - how Cyrus and Zane carefully avoided mentioning death; how the show has never been afraid of depicting or mentioning death, and that they’ve done so many times before and since; how Julien’s presence in S3 would’ve destroyed all of the emotional impact - the answer becomes obvious. **Julien was _specifically, explicitly excluded_ from S3, but the writers left themselves just enough wiggle room such that they could bring him back later.**

Hopefully, by this point, I’ve successfully convinced all of you that this idea isn’t all that implausible. If that’s the case, then let’s move onto the second part of this equation: **the massive amount of references and foreshadowing that suggest that he’s going to return, and soon.**

To begin, let’s examine some of weakest evidence - **the increasing number of references to him over the last few seasons.** Before S6, the last time Julien had been mentioned in conversation was, if I remember right, about halfway through E28 - when Pixal was repairing Zane on the train, and the conversation suddenly shifted to his Power Source. Additionally, the last time Julien was pictured was in E34 - during Zane’s flashback sequence. After that, during the next two and a half seasons, he’s never brought up again.

But  _completely out of nowhere,_  S6 gives us  _The Last Resort_ \- which not only mentions Julien _repeatedly_ throughout almost the entire episode, **but which also introduces Echo, and opens a whole new can of worms for fans to mull over.**  Later, in Day of the Departed, Zane creates a statue of him - which once again reminds the audience that Julien exists.

But sure - this isn’t conclusive evidence by a long shot. So let’s move on to the next major piece of evidence: a specific question from the SDCC 2016 Ninjago panel. **It starts at 32:50,** and it's only about a minute long.

For those of you that can't or don't want to watch the video, I've transcribed all of the relevant dialogue here:

> **Kid:** Whatever happened to Zane’s father?
> 
> **Dan:** Oh, now that the end of season four, I believe, where he went off on, and, uh...
> 
> _[...]_
> 
> **Tommy:** That - that is one of the - can I do this?
> 
> **Kevin:** Yeah.
> 
> **Tommy:**  That is one of the - That is a wonderful question, because, if you remember when Rebooted was aired, there’s just, like, a small sentence where Cyrus Borg says to Zane “I was very sorry that your father is now gone”. Now, “gone” can mean a lot of things, ah, so, there’s just a potential idea there that maybe we’ll bring him back, or, we don’t, we don’t know yet! So...
> 
> **Kevin:** Would you like us to bring him back?
> 
> **Kid:** Yeah.
> 
> _[Laughter]_

Remember what I brought up earlier about how Cyrus’s quote in S3 didn’t necessarily say that Julien was dead? **Here, they confirm it - and also confirm that they might do something with him in the future.**

There’s probably a number of you out there who still aren’t convinced after everything I’ve presented so far. Just because they said that they _might_ do something with Julien in the future doesn’t mean that they _will._  And furthermore, even if they _do_ bring him back eventually, it won’t necessarily be _soon._ It could be at _any_ point in time - maybe S9, or S11, or S20.

And you’re absolutely right - everything I’ve mentioned so far has done nothing to establish a time-frame on _when_ he might return, if he does at all. But that’s where I bring in my final piece of evidence: **Wu’s last journal entry at the very end of the Dark Island Trilogy.**

If you watch the rest of the SDCC panel, you’ll see that Tommy and the Hagemans mention the Dark Island Trilogy several times during the Q&A section. In addition, Tommy (at minimum) has also tweeted several times that it’s canon to the show, and it takes place between S6 (or the twelve minutes of it that are canon, anyway) and Day of the Departed. While I don’t have the books and have never read them, I’ve read a little bit  _about_ them - and something very interesting happens at the end. But perhaps [the book’s page on the Ninjago Wiki](http://ninjago.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Island_Trilogy%2C_Part_3) explains it best:

> Later that night, Wu, waking up, would be struck with a horrible nightmare. Recounting what he'd seen in his journal, Wu would recall his dream; Cryptic visions, such as that of Dr. Saunders, followed by the Hall of Villainy exhibit, its statues filled with more life than regular mannequins; Master Yang, dwelling in the shadows; the former masters of Fire and Water, Ray and Maya, in a pit of flame forging something terrible; the deceased inventor, Dr. Julien; and finally, the twins he thought lost to time, Acronix and Krux. Haunted by his visions, Wu decides that he must prepare for the inevitable future.

But the most interesting part about all of this is probably the accompanying full-page drawing:

_I dunno... Does it look like it's important?_

So let’s break this down. First, Wu sees Dr. Saunders, the Hall of Villainy exhibit, and Sensei Yang - which are all quite obviously involved in Day of the Departed. Saunders is the museum curator; the statues in the Hall of Villainy exhibit come to life to wreak havoc; and Sensei Yang is the Big Bad who causes all of this in the first place.

The second half of the visions share a theme, too. Ray, Maya, and the Time Twins all play a major role in the season... **but then why is Julien there?**

Perhaps the last people who strongly object to this theory might still attempt to explain it away, that it’s possible he’ll be involved in a later season and they’re just reminding us he exists, just like what they did with _The Last Resort_ and Day of the Departed. But if that were the case, **wouldn’t Julien appear at the very end of the list, instead of the middle of the S7 elements?**

Any way you slice it, it always comes back to the same conclusion - **Julien might _already be involved_ in S7.** But if that’s the case, then where is he?

And _that,_ my friend, is where things start to get _interesting._

* * *

###  **Section Two:**  What We Know About Samurai X

Before we dive deeper into all of the evidence for this theory, I figured it would be a good idea to **restate the evidence that we gathered earlier about Samurai X** \- their thoughts and feelings, motives/goals, and interactions with others. (TL;DR, all of the evidence I cited to disprove the Pixal theory.) The list I’ve prepared is split into four sections:

  1. Personality
  2. Skills
  3. Actions and Thoughts
  4. Reactions and Feelings



This helps in two ways: for one, it makes it significantly easier to read, and for another, it also allows us to analyze specific pieces one at a time later on. Let’s get into the list.

#### Personality

  * They’re very confident in their abilities
  * They’re overall non-confrontational, but they aren't afraid to defend themselves or others if necessary
  * They're _extremely_  independent and almost always prefer to work alone
  * They tend to be quiet and unobtrusive
    * They pretend to be to be uninterested in group conversations, but silently watch and listen
    * They stay as far away as possible from large groups; they avoid interacting like the plague
    * They almost never voice their own ideas or opinions
    * They only speak if spoken to, and sometimes not even then
  * They don’t like exposing themselves to others
    * They hide their true thoughts and feelings behind a front of indifference
      * Underneath, they appear to be a very anxious person
    * They want to hide their identity at all costs
    * They're willing to deceive others (but they've never outright lied)



#### Skills

  * **Technology Related:**
    * They were able to modify and repair Nya’s technology very quickly
    * They supposedly created some kind of device to change their voice
    * They know a lot about Nindroids and coding
    * They hacked Zane’s scanner (probably very easily, given how nonchalantly they tell Cyrus) and could have influenced his thoughts as well
    * They taught themselves how to pilot Nya’s vehicles and mechs
  * They’re very good at thinking on their feet
  * They can easily design, execute, and complete plans without difficulty
  * They’re quite agile
  * They’re capable of defending themselves in a fight



#### Actions and Thoughts

  * **With Nya:**
    * They left without a word after they saved Lloyd, even though Nya was shouting at them to explain themselves
    * They didn’t attempt to hurt Nya when they fought; they only engaged in self-defense
    * They didn’t know that Garmadon was dead
    * They appealed to Nya’s emotions in order to get her to stop attacking them over their identity
      * They deceived her through a lie of omission (by allowing her to draw her own conclusions about their identity)
  * **With Cyrus:**
    * They consider him to be important, and seem to trust him
      * They were looking for him for some reason
      * They planned to return him to Borg Tower unharmed
    * They hacked Zane’s scanner in order to find him
    * They provided a lot of help to get him to the code panel
  * **With Zane:**
    * They’re very dismissive of him
    * They speak to him with a cold and slightly hostile tone
    * They show a general disregard for his personhood
      * They refer to him as “Nindroid” instead of his name
      * They hack his scanner and possibly influence his thoughts in order to make him look for Cyrus
        * This is obviously a _huge_ violation of Zane’s autonomy
  * **With Larger Groups:**
    * They stand as far away from everyone else as they possibly can
    * They barely move, besides occasionally turning their head and/or body to look at whoever is talking
    * They listen silently and observe the scene around them
    * They never speak unless directly confronted
    * Most of the time, they have no idea how to interact with the rest of the group



#### Reactions and Feelings

  * **When Lloyd fell off his dragon:**
    * They flew to his aid immediately
      * Given how high in the sky they are when we first see them, they'd probably taken off well before Kai's rescue attempt failed
    * They successfully saved his life and returned him to the floating temple
  * **During their fight with Nya:**
    * They never attacked Nya or attempted to hurt her; they only defended themselves
    * They saved Nya from falling off the edge of the platform
  * **While attempting to deactivate the Iron Doom:**
    * They helped Cyrus without hesitation
      * They caught him in midair and landed safely; they clearly didn’t want him to be hurt
      * They held Cyrus comfortably such that he could easily think
    * They filed off the digits of the code in unison with Zane
  * **When the timeline is altered:**
    * They completely disappear; when it’s brought back to normal, they appear next to Zane like nothing happened
    * Both of them were very far away from the rest of the group; there are three possibilities as to how they got over there:
      * Zane followed Samurai X
      * Samurai X followed Zane
      * Samurai X just randomly reappeared next to him
    * They return to the group (or the group moves toward them) and they continue to observe the conversation
  * **When Kai uses the Time Blade on Ray:**
    * They show immense interest in the Time Blade’s power
      * They step forward to get a better look; no one else moves
        * Their mind seems to grind to a complete halt; they’re completely unable to process what they’re seeing
      * After Ray is back to normal, they appear to be shocked, dazed, and/or lost in thought; they stand as still as a statue and barely seem aware of events happening around them
    * They regain their senses when Lloyd starts talking about how to dispose of the Time Blade
      * They appear to be very nervous during this - they constantly shift their weight from one leg to the other, move their arms around slightly, and turn their head back and forth a lot more than everyone else



To say the least, there’s quite a lot - and **all of it can be explained** quite easily under this theory. So now that we’ve gotten all of this out of the way, let’s jump right in!

* * *

###  **Section Three:**  Connecting the Dots - Personality and Skills

On a surface level, you’d think that the two of them have nothing in common, personality-wise - Julien is odd, but charming, while Samurai X is detached and cold. However, when examining specific aspects one at a time, it’s very clear that they share more than a few traits.

#### Confidence and Capabilities

To begin with, it’s completely, unambiguously true that **Julien is _extremely_ confident in his abilities.** He’s designed and built all kinds of robots and machines, each of which served any number of purposes. In some cases, he’s even been able to do so while having severe shortages of materials. (For example, Echo was made almost entirely out of nothing more than [“copper and bits and pieces from the island”](http://orig07.deviantart.net/bc3c/f/2016/306/7/1/copper_by_greenwood_wolf-dan2lyz.png) \- and in a similar vein, he and Nya built the Earth Driller and Fire Mech on the Dark Island, where there also weren’t very many proper materials.)

As another example, when the Ninja asked him (in E22) if he could repair the Bounty, he practically scoffed at how easy it would be to fix, and said it would be ready by dawn (about 18 hours later, assuming they started around noon). And sure enough, while the Ninja did most of the assembling, Julien was able to completely restore the ship’s engines without having blueprints to work off of, and also designed a blimp to increase stability while flying. To say the least, that’s a lot to do in 18 hours, and the designs had to have been done far earlier than that. That means no time for testing, tweaking, or _anything_ \- and if something went wrong at any point, they’d probably all die.  **Julien was betting that he could make an absolutely flawless first draft - and as it turned out, _he did._**

And speaking of abilities, let’s take another look at the list of things Samurai X is good at. Modifying and repairing Nya’s technology, creating a very advanced voice-changer, knowledge of Nindroids, hacking Zane - those are all a walk in the park for Julien; he could practically do all of that in his _sleep._ He’s also very good at thinking on his feet, and coming up with plans quickly.

Some of them, however, seem to be **completely outside Julien’s skillset** \- sure, he could _maybe_ teach himself to pilot Nya’s vehicles, but would he really be able to do it so _naturally_ without much practice? Furthermore, he doesn’t seem all _that_ agile, and he has no combat experience whatsoever.

I can hear all of you asking “How in the world are you going to explain _these?_ ” And the answer is simple... because **_almost all of them_  are nicely demonstrated in one scene from E25.**

Julien only met up with the Ninja a few days before, and was never been shown to pilot the Bounty in any previous episode. And despite everything stacked against him, he was still able to control it precisely enough to both intercept the Overlord's evil-darkness-missile  _and_  ensure that it wouldn't crash-land anywhere such that it could potentially hurt or kill the Ninja. I'd say that all of this is  _quite_ impressive - and that it _also_  demonstrates several of the aforementioned skills. :)

Furthermore, **it's not that unreasonable to believe that he _could_ fight,** either - lots of characters with little or no formal training have been able to fight in a pinch if their life depends on it. For example:

  * **Nya.**  As far as we're aware, she taught herself how to fight - she only got formal training in S5, when Sensei Wu suspected that she might be the Water Ninja.
  * **Brad, Gene, Sally, and all of the other kids at Darkley's Boarding School.** In E17, when the other Ninja are in trouble, Lloyd asks all the kids to help him fight back - and sure enough, they succeed.
  * **Dareth.** While he claims to be a karate master, all of his "moves" are more like exaggerated yoga poses. Though it's played to comedic effect, he _has_ been able to defend himself and others from attackers (for example, in E29, he's able to scare off a shark). He was also part of the Ninja Replacement Team from S6, and said team was certainly effective.
  * **Pixal.** You could _argue_ that Cyrus programmed that into her system by default, but it's unlikely - Pixal was meant to be a secretary and tour guide, and it wouldn't really be all that necessary for her to have such skills. Sure, she only demonstrates her fighting skills after the Overlord corrupted her - but her fighting style is a bit crude and unpracticed compared to Zane's, implying that she was only doing so to the best of her ability. And while she did learn much better techniques while interacting with the Ninja, that's not anywhere _close_ to the kind of intense training that the Ninja and Lloyd originally received.
  * **The citizens of Ninjago City.** In E31, they form a mob and try to defend Borg Tower. While they weren't very successful, at least they tried. :)
  * **Echo.**  He's _definitely_ never had training, and even though he was constantly falling apart, and he was _still_ able to get a few good hits on some of Nadakhan's crew members. Additionally, he was part of the Ninja Replacement Team, who definitely did a pretty good job with their rescue mission.



If all of these people can fight with absolutely no formal training,  **why would Julien not be able to do the same?**

Additionally, **Samurai X doesn't do all that much actual fighting, and what little they do isn't all that complicated.**  The only real combat they participate in is their fight with Nya in E71, and for most of their battle, they only defend themselves against Nya's attacks. However, their technique is minimal, at best; they merely use their arms to protect whatever area Nya happens to be targeting, rather than actual blocking moves. Additionally, they tend to rely on evasive maneuvers more than anything - and judging by how they tend to flail a lot when they're hit, they almost certainly wouldn't last in a one-on-one fight without them.  **Their techniques and style resemble typical defensive maneuvers that any normal person would use if they had to fight out of nowhere** \- if someone with no training were forced to fight someone _with_  training, they'd try with all their might to avoid their attacks, and defend their head and other sensitive areas with their arms. Furthermore, if they happened to be hit, they'd probably recoil from the impact - the same way Samurai X does.

Then you take into account everything else - how they tried to avoid fighting her, to end the battle as quickly as possible, and the way they don't fight anyone else throughout the rest of the season - and the picture becomes much clearer: **Samurai X is a complete beginner at combat, and they're only _pretending_ to have any significant ability.**  Julien seems to fit the bill much better now, doesn't he?

With all of this taken into consideration, **Julien's and Samurai X's skillsets are _completely identical_**  - there's nothing Samurai X can do that Julien can't, nor vice versa. Now that we've covered this, let's continue on and examine some other traits.

#### Violence

 **Samurai X participates in only one fight throughout the entire season - namely, with Nya in E71.** While I'm definitely going to discuss this fight more later, I think it's important to bring up here for several reasons. The most important one, though, is that it nicely demonstrates their philosophy on violence - **they _can_ use violence, but they don't  _want_  to.**

This is even further supported by the fact that,  **while they _do_  fight back when attacked, Samurai X never starts any fights themselves.** The only violent conflict they participated in was their fight with Nya, and _she_ was the one to start it. While they certainly didn't  _prevent_ a fight, with the way they were changing their voice over and over - as that's what set Nya off - **their confrontation with her could've been entirely nonviolent** had the two of them gotten the conversation off to a better start and remained civil throughout.

Furthermore, even while the two of them were fighting, **Samurai X made no attempt to intensify the violence.**  At first, they told Nya that they didn't want to fight her; and when she kept at it, they only defended themselves. Even _more_ importantly, they saved her from falling off the edge of the platform.

If Samurai X wanted to harm Nya, this whole fight was a perfect opportunity. And further, if they wanted to harm any of the other Ninja, they had plenty of opportunities to do so during the chaos at the end of E73.

Simply put, they don't like violence - **they don't want to hurt people.**  Samurai X is a neutral force, focused only on their own goals - and if it's possible, they won't use violence to achieve them. (I'll be mentioning this particular detail again in Part Three for multiple reasons.)

When compared to Samurai X, it initially seems to be much more difficult to figure out Julien's opinions on violence, because he's flat-out _never_ been involved in a fight. However, if anything, it's almost _easier_ \- **because he's said and done a lot of subtle things that make it very obvious.**

For one, there's his famous saying, one that he apparently said/taught to both Zane _and_ Echo - **"You were built to protect those who cannot protect themselves."** And if we look closely, we can see that the same philosophy runs through the core of almost all of his other creations. In most cases, it's pretty subtle, but still easy enough to figure out.

Zane is a good baseline to start with. However, he has a very unique case among Julien's creations - his purpose doesn't realize itself until after his memories get wiped. But as soon as Wu finds him, it becomes incredibly obvious: **Zane's purpose is not to destroy his enemies, _but to defend against them_** \- which can easily be summarized as "protecting others who cannot protect themselves."

Julien's other creations all have similar purposes, but none of them are as straightforward as Zane's. The Juggernaut is a good example: while it did attack Zane during _Tick Tock,_  it probably just didn't recognize him; other than that, its purpose was to protect the Workshop and those inside from the Treehorns. And the Falcon serves as a wonderful complement to it - while it can't protect others _against_ violence, it's able to scout areas and warn if enemies are nearby (via Falcon Vision).

Echo's and Smeeter's  ~~ _(because I would rather **die** than refer to it as TAI-D, fuck you Lego)_~~  purposes are much less obvious, because they don't really protect others from violence like Zane, the Juggernaut, and the Falcon do. Sure, they prove themselves at bit useful when fighting the Sky Pirates in _The Last Resort,_ but they were  _definitely_ not built for that. Echo is agile, sure, but he can't stay in one piece for more than ten minutes; and Smeeter is, well, a box with arms. In a fair fight (which the fight in TLR was _not_ \- Echo and Smeeter mostly helped by booby-trapping the Lighthouse), they'd be down for the count in a minute or less. However, when you look at the Lighthouse, their purposes become incredibly obvious. While I'll get into the exact details much later in Part Three, **Echo and Smeeter were intended to protect Julien from _himself_ \- to prevent him from _completely losing it_  due to the total isolation.**

 **The one common thread throughout all of Julien's creations is _protection,_** not destruction; defense, not offense; guarding, not striking. Through this, his opinions toward violence as a whole bring themselves to the light. Julien believes that **while violence can sometimes be _necessary_** \- as demonstrated by Zane and the Juggernaut - **it should only be used as a last resort.**

Yet another detail which nicely aligns with Samurai X's worldview! Let's keep going, shall we?

#### Independence

It should be incredibly obvious to anyone - even people who have barely watched the show - **that both Julien and Samurai X are incredibly independent people.**  Samurai X located the Samurai Cave on their own - they certainly didn't ask _Nya_ about it, and it's unlikely they would've asked anyone else who knows of its whereabouts. They also voluntarily took on the Samurai X persona - that of an independent agent who neither allies with nor answers to anyone.

Back when she was Samurai X, Nya did the same thing, **but not _nearly_ to as great of an extent as the current Samurai X does.** Even before she revealed herself to the Ninja, her incarnation of the Samurai always "just so happened" to show up at some of the Ninja's missions - and after she was found out, she was almost _always_ working with someone, be it the Ninja throughout the first three seasons, Dareth when she went undercover in S4, or Ronin when she was resisting being the Water Ninja during S5.

On the other hand, **this new Samurai works entirely alone, with no exceptions.**  Their goals are entirely separate from the Ninja's, and the few times that they end up in the same place at the same time, it's pretty much _always_  through happenstance. For example, it's not too hard to imagine that they could've just been flying overhead when they saw Lloyd fall off his dragon, and they only swooped in to save him because they were there to see it. And the only other time they met up with the Ninja, in E73, **they'd only come to rescue Cyrus** \- they had no involvement and zero interest in the whole Iron Doom business. The only reason they got roped into it in the first place was because the Ninja insisted that Cyrus was needed to stop the Iron Doom - and even then, Samurai X only stuck around because they figured that it'd help them escort Cyrus faster.

Meanwhile, Julien:

  1. **Lived and died within a small room built inside a hollowed-out tree located in the middle of nowhere,** with the nearest village being  _miles_ away
  2. **Designed and built all sorts of fantastic inventions by himself,** and never showed them to anyone else
  3. **Didn't bother to provide much documentation on said inventions** such that others could study his designs (Zane's Power Source, for example; nobody has any clue how it works)
  4. **Never appeared to have any friends or relatives,** and never contacted them if he did
  5. **Kept no company other than Zane**  (or Echo) and his other inventions
  6. After the Ninja rescued him from the Lighthouse, **he barely interacted with them** and instead spent almost all of his time building the Earth Driller and Fire Mech with Nya
  7. And, as we saw before in that clip, **he came up with a back-up plan on his own in case things went wrong**  and was able to implement it successfully without any of the Ninja's knowledge or help



To say the least, I think this connection is pretty self-explanatory. XP

And because of how much overlap there is between these two topics, this is a perfect segway into:

#### Unobtrusiveness

As I covered in Part One, **Samurai X is only slightly more social than a tree,** in that they are capable of moving and speaking, both of which are vital aspects of human interaction (and both of which a tree are incapable of doing). So let's see how Julien compares!

One of the easiest things to start with is exactly how little Julien actually speaks.  **Because he barely talks at all, ever.** With the exception of _The Last Voyage_ \- where he's almost constantly talking during the second half of the episode -  **he has a total of about _ten lines_ in E25,** and possibly even _less_ in some of the other episodes.

All of this makes sense, obviously. He has exactly _no idea_ who the other Ninja are, other than that they're Zane's friends. As any introverted person can tell you, that's a sure-fire way to get one to shut up. And then you can double that if they also have social anxiety, which Julien very likely does (along with autism and inattentive/combined ADHD). Because Julien doesn't know the Ninja all that well, he doesn't know how to talk to them, which further increases anxiety and makes it even _harder_ to initiate conversation. When someone else begins talking to him, though, he can handle himself just fine - but unless they're discussing a subject that he's particularly comfortable with (i.e. robotics), his responses tend to be short and simple. Additionally, he's usually a bit reluctant to share his thoughts on any particular matter, and prefers to listen to, rather than participate in, group conversations.

**And all of these traits are _nearly identical_ to those displayed by Samurai X.**

While it's impossible to objectively compare how the two of them tend to speak beyond these surface-level generalizations, **it _is_ easy to compare how they position themselves within groups.** Here's a collage of screenshots from the latter half of S2:

_Four screenshots from E25. It's very obvious that Julien stays a bit farther away from the core of group._

_Four screenshots from E26, once again demonstrating how Julien distances himself from others._

_This particular screenshot is **completely** out of context, but I don't give a fuck! It explains itself._

Take a moment to remember back to Part One, when I was comparing Samurai X's body language to Pixal's. I pointed out that Pixal always tended to stick near the middle of the group, whereas Samurai X was almost _exclusively_ along the edges.  **So compare Julien's behavior, demonstrated in the above screenshots, to Samurai X's - and, once again, they're identical.**

With three personality traits down, there's only one to go - so let's get started with the final analysis.

#### Secrecy

 **Samurai X doesn't like to expose themselves to others,**  no matter whether it's their identity or their thoughts and feelings at stake. On a surface level, Julien seems to be similar - but not _nearly_ to as great a degree as Samurai X does. Samurai X conceals their true self behind a blank mask; their thoughts and emotions are hidden and entirely unreadable. They'd do anything to keep their identity a secret, and they're willing and able to deceive others to do so.

To an untrained eye, this seems like a stretch, at best. Sure, Julien's got his secrets, but _everyone_ does! It'd be completely out of character for him to go from "quiet, nervous inventor" to "cold, secretive warrior". And this would be completely right... except for the fact that **Julien has an incredibly large number of secrets, all of which he took to his supposed "grave".**

As I said just above, Julien interacts with _very_ few people, and never shares too much with anyone.  **Further, he definitely has pretty bad anxiety, especially regarding others' opinions of him,** as this quote from _The Last Voyage_ clearly demonstrates:

> **Julien:** I was afraid... If you found out what horrible things I'd created, you would think I was a... _monster._

None of these things, taken on their own, are solid evidence. Anyone can have anxiety issues, and that combined with autism can make it very difficult to interact with others. However, **when you combine all of these things with everything that Julien has _done,_  it becomes clear that there's something more here.** Some of the things he's hidden from the Ninja are pretty significant, and they paint a very suspicious picture. But Julien would _never_ hide anything from Zane; they're father and son! They tell each other _everything..._ right?

**_Oh._ **

To say the least, Echo is pretty significant in this respect. While Echo himself hasn't done anything of note (besides helping Jay and Nya defend the Lighthouse in _The Last Resort_ , and being a member of the Ninja Replacement Team in E63), Echo's very _existence_ \- and the fact that he was a  _complete secret_  - tells us something incredibly important about Julien: **he has no qualms with hiding things from others, up to and including his own son.** (And the fun thing is that you can interpret that in _either_ sense: how Julien hid Echo from the world, or how he never told Zane about his new brother.)

 **Once we acknowledge this fact, everything else easily falls into place.**  He's clearly willing and able to deceive others through lies of omission, at minimum - _the exact same way_ Samurai X does. And while he doesn't hide his thoughts and feelings to the extent Samurai X does, he's _definitely_ a very anxious person, and it's not hard for him to conceal important things. With how many walls he already has up, it wouldn't be hard for him to build a few more.

The one thing that doesn't quite make sense at this point is this: **if Julien is Samurai X, why is he so intent on hiding his identity?** While I don't have time to get into it here - and it's a bit off-topic for this section, anyway - there _is_ a reason, and I promise I'll get to it in Part Three. It's just that there's a lot to cover in order for it to make sense, and it's better to do it all in one place.

Now we're done with the first half of the evidence, and so far everything matches perfectly - so let's move on and deconstruct the rest.

* * *

###  **Section Four:**  Assembling the Pieces - Actions and Reactions

A lot of the things I'm going to comment on in this section were partially covered in the previous section - such as Samurai X's and Julien's opinions on violence, how they don't want to hurt people, their skills and abilities, their tendencies when interacting with groups, etc. I won't re-explain those things here, but I will mention them briefly wherever I feel it's appropriate.

#### Interactions with Nya

Samurai X first interacts with Nya immediately after they save Lloyd from falling to his death - once again demonstrating how they don't want to hurt people or let them get hurt. Nya begins screaming at them to give her Samurai suit back, but the Samurai leaves without a word, and gets hit by a Vermillion projectile about thirty seconds later. However, they clearly aren't hurt, as they show up in the next episode and are completely fine - but the Samurai X suit never appears again, so it was very likely destroyed when it hit the ground. Obviously, there isn't really all that much here besides the fact that Samurai X doesn't speak and stands there awkwardly for about 30 seconds before finally flying off. I'm bringing this up more for completion than anything else; this specific interaction doesn't point to anything all that significant (besides more possible signs of anxiety).

After that, there's the whole fight with Nya, and everything else from there also makes sense: Julien avoids fighting her because he has no combat experience, while she clearly does; he doesn't  _want_ to fight her because they were allied (and possibly even _friends,_ given how they spent all their time together while building the Fire Mech and Earth Driller) however many years ago; and he chooses to save her because he has no specific ill will towards her, and she's helped him in the past. Additionally, the fact that they let Nya assume that they were Skylor - rather than pointing to any specific identity themselves - is a "lie of omission" that's perfectly in line with Julien's mildly-deceptive tendencies.

But then you consider the strangest part of the scene: that Samurai X knows _nothing_ about Garmadon's death.  **Every single other character on the show** \- everyone from Dareth to Chamille to Lou to Pythor - **would _already know_ that Garmadon is dead** , and that he won't be coming back any time soon. Meanwhile, Julien disappeared _long before_ Garmadon died, and by the time Samurai X shows up, it's already old news. Because of this, **it's incredibly likely that Julien wouldn't know about it**  - by the time he showed up, nobody would have any reason to talk about it anymore, and he'd assume Garmadon's still around by default.

#### Interactions with Cyrus

Cyrus is a very interesting case, as **he's the only person Samurai X has an explicitly positive relationship with.** Samurai X goes out of their way to rescue Cyrus, using any and all means necessary - such as hacking Zane's scanner to locate Cyrus faster. Once they show up at the Iron Doom's chamber, they become laser-focused on returning him to Borg Tower; the only reason they stick around is because Zane tells them that Cyrus needs to disable the Iron Doom. The other thing of note is that Samurai X creates a complicated scheme to get Cyrus to the Iron Doom - and then executes it perfectly such that both of them can get to the control console, safe and sound.

For those of you who have doubts about the second part, may I redirect your attention to the aforementioned clip from E25. However, the first part is interesting for several reasons, mostly because it doesn't seem to make sense for Julien: he disappeared at some point before Cyrus was even introduced (most likely no more than a few months before), and it's pretty clear from the way Cyrus talks about it that they never had a personal relationship of any kind. Speaking of that, though, let's bring back that one quote from earlier:

> **Cyrus:** Speaking of which... my deepest condolences, Zane. I heard about your father - oh, he was a brilliant mind. He would’ve fit right in.

Cyrus only says that he's _heard_ about Julien, not met him; additionally, he's clearly not in mourning similar to the way he, the Ninja, and others were after Zane's death. However, **the fact that he cares enough to give Julien the time of day says _a lot_** \- _especially_ when combined with how much Cyrus clearly respects and even _admires_ Julien. The thing is, it's not all that hard to imagine that Julien did or would reciprocate Cyrus's respect/admiration - **and that's a _huge deal_ in this situation.**

Just think about it for a moment. Cyrus interacts with many people on a regular basis, and has good relationships with most of them. He has a warm, welcoming personality that makes people feel right at home, and he's incredibly honest and kind without ulterior motives. Further, he's always willing and able to help his friends - of which he has many, as well as an uncountable number of acquaintances and fans who appreciate his achievements.

Meanwhile, Julien lived in a tree in the middle of the woods for 40+ years, kept all his inventions and discoveries to himself, and the number of people he's comfortable interacting with and/or close to can be counted on two fingers. While he _does_ join the Ninja temporarily in the last few episodes of S2, he tends to stick by himself, and is almost always completely silent during group conversations - which is very different from the relationship he has with Zane (and almost certainly with Echo as well).

 **The idea that Julien might be comfortable with - or even _admire_ \- someone outside his own family would be so completely _ludicrous_ in any other situation** that you'd be laughed to the moon and back. But here, with Cyrus, it makes _sense..._  and the fact that we can even consider the possibility is _incredibly_ important.

 **At this point, it makes a lot of sense that Julien would be able to trust Cyrus and _only_ Cyrus.** I'll explain more about this in Zane's section as well, because it's relevant there, too - but it comes down to the fact that **Julien's been gone for such a long time.**

 **A lot of things have changed since S2.** There's been more than a few answers revealed, and a secret history is being unveiled one piece at a time. Allies have become enemies, and enemies have become allies. The Ninja have fought more armies than anyone can count. They've had years and years of friendships ruined and rebuilt. They've met a large and lively cast of new characters. They've loved and lost and lamented and lasted to see the future unfolding before them.

Cole became a ghost. Lloyd got possessed. Garmadon was banished to the Cursed Realm and later died permanently. Wu trained a Water Ninja. Kai questioned his heritage. Jay and Nya remember a timeline of events that never happened.

And Zane died, resurrected himself, and then renounced his identity as the White Ninja.

 **Cyrus is one of the only consistent factors left - and thus, the only person Julien might be able to trust at this point.**  Everything else has simply changed so much that it's nothing like he would remember it. Julien's only ever been comfortable with his own sons, who were immortal and (mostly) unchanging; he knew where he stood with them, as both a father and a friend. He never really knew where he stood with the Ninja while he was with them on the Dark Island; now, he's suddenly in the middle of a strange new world where almost everything is different. If he knew Cyrus beforehand - or at minimum knew _about_ him - he'd almost certainly turn to him. Cyrus is the only thing that stayed the same between "before" and "after", and Julien needs consistency more than anything else.

So it makes sense why Julien, as Samurai X, would want to seek him out - **Cyrus is one of the _only_ people that Julien could even _consider_ trusting right now.** There are also a few other reasons why he might want to look for Cyrus - but I'll be getting to _those_ in Part Three. For now, let's move on to the other side of the coin: Samurai X's relationship with Zane.

#### Interactions with Zane

Zane is _also_ a very interesting case, for the exact opposite reason as Cyrus - **he's the only person that Samurai X seems actively hostile towards.**

For all of you who still doubt this theory up to this point, this is probably the ultimate nail in the coffin:  **Julien would _never_ hate his own son!** They've been together for years and years, and supported each other through thick and thin. Zane _cried_  when he recovered his memories of Julien, and finally remembering their time together allowed him to reach his True Potential. And the same goes for Julien - he tried for _years_ not to give up on the hope that Zane would find him in the Lighthouse; and even once the reality of the situation hit him, he built Echo in Zane's image, because he _cared_ about him and  _loved_ him and _missed_ him more than he could ever possibly hope to bear.

And when Zane finally returned - after so, _so_ many years - Julien embraced him, and encouraged him, and gave him hope, and mourned him when he sacrificed himself for his friends and family. Sure, Zane didn't _actually_ die  _ ~~( **cough** unlike in The Titanium Ninja  **cough** )~~_, but it's truly the _reaction_  that counts - and you can see the way that Julien's world _collapses_ when Zane falls over the side.

**If Julien is Samurai X, why would he hate his _own son_ the most?**

Remember what I said in Cyrus's section? How Julien craves stability and consistency? How he's only ever comfortable in situations where he knows exactly where he stands? How he likes to know everything that's going on such that he can't be surprised by anything? How he almost exclusively interacts with himself and a very select number of people who he _knows_ he can trust?

And remember what else I said? How everything is so different now? How Cyrus is pretty much the only thing left that he can recognize? How some people have changed, and some have moved on?

**How Zane died, resurrected himself, and then renounced his identity as the White Ninja?**

**And _that,_ right there, is the clincher.** Imagine if someone watched the Pilot and the first two seasons, and then jumped straight into S5, for instance. Sure, they'd still be able to recognize the characters, and they'd be able to understand most of what's going on - but Zane Doesn't Have Skin Anymore, among other things. And imagine that they had nobody to ask about what happened, and no way to watch S3 and S4. By that point, Zane's death is already old news, and it's almost certainly not mentioned anywhere in the season. All that this person would have to work off of are two characters with the same name, the same voice, and similar appearances - one with yellow skin and one without.

Would this person initially believe that they're the same character? Probably - the Ninja all refer to Zane the same way they used to, and consider him their friend. There's no significant reason to believe otherwise. But if they were to look closer, they'd see that his personality had changed, ever-so-slightly. Back in the early seasons, Zane was smart, but also kind; however, starting in S4, he loses much of that kindness - he becomes much more full of himself, overconfident in his abilities. **The old Zane would've never overestimated himself, and always relied on his friends for things that he knew he could never do alone.**

But Titanium Zane, in E59, plays chess with Nadakhan. He tries to outwit Nadakhan at his own game of wish-making, and makes wishes to prevent Nadakhan from harming the Ninja - but in the process, he gives Nadakhan a loophole to delete Pixal, and then gets himself trapped in the Sword of Souls via "wishing it all away". **Titanium Zane thought he could fix everything by himself, without the others' help**  - as he didn't even try to find them when Nadakhan appeared to him below deck.

**Would the old Zane have _ever_ done the same thing?**

And that's the thing - without the context of previous events, a complete stranger would have many questions and no answers. **Without the context offered by S3 and S4, nobody would instantly believe that Titanium Zane is the same Zane we've always known and loved.**

So let's go back to Julien now - if he's Samurai X, that means he disappeared shortly before S3 and has only shown up _now,_ in S7. And sure, that doesn't seem all that long - **until you consider the timeline, and realize that he was gone for upwards of _five years!_**

Julien disappeared two or three months before the start of S3, probably; while the Ninja were mourning Zane, they got settled into other careers; S5 seems to take place quite a while after S4, as the Ninja have clearly been handling things on their own for quite a while, and Wu has had the time to start up his own tea business. It's a similar story for S6, as the Ninja have suddenly become huge TV stars, which is another huge transition. And at the end of _Day of the Departed_ , Jay mentions that Cole "tells this story every Day of the Departed" - meaning that it probably takes place _at least_ three years after the canon twelve minutes of S6. (If the events had taken place the previous year, it would've been the first time Cole told the story - and if it were two years after, Cole only would've told it two times in total, which is practically nothing. This means that the absolute minimum time is three years after, as Cole would've told it for three years in a row - which would definitely warrant Jay's complaint.)

 **He would have absolutely zero context on what happened to Zane, and nobody would bother talking about what had happened all those years ago.** All he would know is that Zane has been replaced by something very similar to his son, but also very, very different. Julien's known Zane for at least forty years, during which he almost exclusively interacted with him; he'd probably be able to tell within a few _minutes_ whether Titanium Zane's was the same as that of the Zane he knew (which, as I've established, it's not). **When you break it down like this, he's in the exact same situation as our hypothetical viewer from earlier** \- but unlike them, Julien  _definitely_ knows that something isn't right here.

And this also explains why Samurai X seems to have neutral relations, at best, with the rest of the Ninja - they all clearly refer to Zane as the same one they've always known and loved, which Julien has no evidence for and substantial evidence to the contrary. For all he knows, they could've orchestrated some crazy conspiracy, and he would be none the wiser. While he doesn't want to _hurt_ them, because he did have a decent relationship with them however many years ago, he doesn't really think he can _trust_ them - which is exactly how Samurai X treats them.

But we still haven't gotten to the most important part of this: **namely, why Julien would treat Zane so dismissively** \- like he's barely worth the metal he's built out of, if that. And that's the _gentlest_ interpretation of Samurai X's behavior; they have more than an edge of hostility towards him, and at times barely treat him like a person at all.

Samurai X and Zane only have one short conversation of any depth, little more than a few lines in total. Just for reference, here's a transcription of the entire scene:

> **Samurai X:** Cyrus Borg. I am relieved you are safe. I have been looking for you.
> 
> **Cyrus:** But how did you find me?
> 
> **Samurai X:** I was able to hack into Zane's scanner. He located you, and I came.
> 
> **Zane:** Samurai X. You appear to always show up at just the right time.
> 
> **Samurai X:** You could say I'm _"hard-wired"_ that way, Nindroid. Now, let's get you home -
> 
> **Zane:** No! We need him to disable the Iron Doom!
> 
> **Samurai X (deeper voice?):** Challenge accepted.

To say the least, this short conversation tells us a lot about how Samurai X feels about Zane - **and all of this inferred behavior makes perfect sense if they are indeed Julien.**  As I've established, Julien would have no reason to believe that Titanium Zane is his son - all of the evidence points directly to the contrary. I've also established how Cyrus would be pretty much the only person Julien could trust at this point.

 **When we combine these two facts, everything comes together quite nicely.** They refer to Zane as "Nindroid" because Julien doesn't really think Titanium Zane is his son; as far as he knows, "Zane" is just another random Nindroid running around. They also seem to disregard him for much the same reason: his goal was to find Cyrus, and now that he's accomplished that, he wants to leave, and it doesn't matter what anyone else says or does - this Samurai works alone, and answers to no one. And finally, it also makes sense why Samurai X would both be _capable of_ and _willing to_ hack Zane's scanner - Julien could probably do it in his sleep, and this Zane (and his autonomy) means absolutely nothing to him - **he needs to figure out what the hell is going on before he can do anything else, and Cyrus is the only person Julien can trust to tell him the truth.**

With this out of the way, we're almost done!

#### The Timeline Shenanigans

As I previously discussed, Samurai X vanished into thin air when the timeline was altered. As I discussed back in Part One, this _was_ potential evidence for the Pixal theory, as all of Cyrus's technology disappeared; but we've thoroughly discredited that whole idea by now, so it's not relevant. Now, we have to explain how it makes sense for Julien - and the best part about all of this is that **this theory explains both why Samurai X disappeared _and_ why Zane had skin again!**

This might not make sense initially, but hear me out for a moment. The whole battle with the Iron Doom took place around 40 years ago, around the same time that Julien was first building Zane. If you noticed during the scene, Zane was wearing the same "outfit" that he had during all of his memories: plain white pants and a plain white shirt. Furthermore, he had the same kind of glazed-over, unseeing expression that he had when his memories were reset in _Tick Tock_ \- eyebrows completely parallel across his face; mouth drawn in a thin, straight line; eyes open (or mostly open, as seen in _Tick Tock_ ), yet completely blank and unfocused.

So Zane is in almost exactly the same state he was when Julien disabled his memory switch, and Samurai X (or rather Julien) is nowhere to be seen - **so what could've happened?**

 **Well, let's just use logic and speculate about how the timeline might have changed.** The alteration started when Wu and the Elemental Masters surrendered themselves to the Time Twins in exchange for sparing the people of Ninjago. Given Krux and Acronix's opinions of them, they most likely killed all of them soon afterward (or _would_ have, had Kai and Nya not been there to intervene). So what would this impact?

 **Quite a lot, to be perfectly honest.** While this definitely took place after Garmadon had already ended his apprenticeship with Chen (as it's mentioned to be towards the end of the Serpentine Wars), it might have been before Wu took in Morro (as it's pretty unclear as to exactly where in the timeline that happened - it could fit in any number of places). And since Wu and Garmadon are both dead, **they could never have had the battle which caused Garmadon to fall into the Underworld.**

So, if Garmadon never fell into the Underworld, then the Skeletons would never have a reason to start a war in Ninjago; they were perfectly fine ruling their own little realm, and had no reason to bother with the surface realm. It's very clear from the way the two of them interact that Samukai was only following Garmadon's orders when he attacked Ninjago. Hence why he tried to take all of the Golden Weapons and betray Garmadon at the end: he was sick of being ordered around, and wanted to run the show for a change.

So if the Skeletons never start a war, they would never need weapons - _**and they would never have a reason to bring Julien back from the dead!**_

And furthermore, consider Julien's death for a moment: As I said earlier, he was bedridden, could barely move, and had difficulty even sitting up; he was just a complete _mess_ in general. Perhaps, in this alternate timeline, he hit the power switch instead of the memory switch; or maybe the memory switch malfunctioned and caused him to shut down; or perhaps there was a random glitch during the memory dumping process which caused the system to freeze up, or loop over an arbitrary function for eternity. **Because of how the timeline could have worked out, it easily explains why Samurai X disappears and why Zane resets back to how he looked at the end of his memories** \- Samukai never resurrected Julien, and Zane malfunctioned somehow such that he froze in place for all of time.

While there were actually a lot of other paradoxes in the "timeline reset" scene (such as the fact that the Ninja still _exist,_ even though all of their parents were probably murdered years before they were born), **this specific piece is logically consistent - suggesting that it was _specifically considered by the writers_ as a necessary detail to include.** This theory solves both pieces of that puzzle at once - and considering that Tommy hyped up that Zane would reappear with skin again in the lead-up to S7, **it's by far the best explanation for why that would've happened in the first place.**

Are you confident in this theory yet? :)

* * *

###  **Section Five:**  But What About The Other Stuff?

I know that I left out a lot of things in this part - including some of the reasoning for why Julien is so intent on hiding his identity, why he's so interested in Cyrus, and _especially_ why he reacts the way he does when he sees Kai use the Time Blade. **All of these have one mildly-complicated explanation, one which ties together every perplexing detail we know about our favorite morally-gray inventor.**  However, if I'd tried to get into the exact details in this part, this part probably would've become ten times longer than it is - and it _already_ clocks in at over 11,000 words.

Part Three will contain as much explanation as you could ever hope for and more; just like everything else about this theory, there's a very obvious trail of breadcrumbs leading to my conclusion. In addition, it'll also contain a fair amount of speculation about S6: as you can probably tell, Julien is in a very different mindset than he was when we last saw him - and as you'll find out in the next section, he's in an even worse state than I've explained here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I'd originally planned to post this all at once on Tumblr, I had to move this theory to AO3 about three weeks ago, because Tumblr simply couldn't handle it. It was super, super glitchy and nearly unworkable, as there were simply too many things for Tumblr to reasonably handle.
> 
> However, due to the way AO3 works, unposted drafts are deleted after 30 days. Because I transferred this from Tumblr to AO3 on June 1st, it was set to expire and be completely deleted on July 1st. Because I only just finished working on Part Two today, if I'd waited to finish Part Three, there was a chance that I'd miss the deadline and all of it would be gone. Obviously, I would very much like to avoid this happening, considering how many hours I've already poured into this. XP
> 
> I have no definite idea when Part Three will come out, but it'll hopefully be soon. If I had to guess, it'll almost certainly be within three weeks. Whenever it's finished, I'll post another link to it on Tumblr, such that you'll know when it's available.
> 
> Until then, thanks for reading! I hope I have you all on the edges of your seats. ;D


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